Guilt, Alchohol and Economics

My poor husband has a cold. He used up every last tissue in the house and started in on the napkins, so I went to the store.

The newspaper flyer advertised "buy 10, get $3 instant rebate," so I bought ten boxes in various patterns. And some frozen vegetables, since we were out.

My husband also asked for some whiskey to make a hot toddy to soothe his chills. I priced out the whiskeys and found a sale that met the store brand price. Whether it actually tastes better I don't know, but it looks like it should taste better. I also picked up a store brand vodka. I've heard that if you're going to buy cheap booze, the quality is least noticeable in vodka. And I had a bunch of limes waiting at home for some vodka.

While I was waiting in the liquor department line, I noticed a cart full of bottles marked "Half Price." As you may have noticed, I can't resist a bargain, so I started picking up bottles to see what they were. Most were $30 bottles of wine marked down to $15 which is still not cheap enough to tempt me. But there were a few clear bottles that were obviously not wine. They were in fact vodka.

Okay, mental math time. A one litre bottle is $4. That means two litres is $8. The 1.75 litre bottle at $10.99 costs more for less alcohol. The store brand bottle went back on the shelf.

I started filling up my cart with vodka bottles. The clinking caught the ear of the woman in line ahead of me, and she turned around and took the last two bottles. Then she continued to check out.

The cashier totaled her order: a small bag of groceries, a bottle of wine and my two half-price vodkas. She started counting out money. Counted it again. She seemed confused and I was wondering if the store could legally sell her wine and vodka if she was already inebriated. Do they follow the same laws as bars?

The cashier said "Is that all you have? You don't have enough." She mumbled something and turned to me with big sad eyes. "Can you help?"

I jumped forward, thinking she needed help translating or counting or some such, but she just needed money. I'm afraid my next reaction was "I won't help you buy alcohol," which seemed kind of hypocritical since my cart was loaded with booze. But it can't be right to finance a stranger's binge, can it?

She mumbled some more, pushing the money around on the counter. The cashier asked if she wanted to put some things back, like the vodka or the wine. It's embarrassing to admit, but for a moment I wondered if I would get those last two bottles after all.

Then the store manager came over to consult with the cashier and the woman in line. None too pleased with my reactions during this little drama, I slunk away, checked out in another part of the store, and left with my six bottles of alcohol, ten boxes of tissue and two bags of frozen spinach.

I Go-ot Card-ed!

Bought a bottle of rum at Jewel the other day. The kid at the cash register called for a "Twenty-one" because she wasn't old enough to ring me up. The manager on duty came over. She was about my age, maybe a bit older, and she asked to see my ID.

Now I was wearing my hair loose and I did have a college sweatshirt on, but since I've been legal to drink twice twenty-one and then some, I find it hard to believe that anyone would have difficulty ball-parking my age.

Maybe the manager was just trying to make my day. If so, she did!

Too Many Hurting People

Strictly speaking, this isn't a Grocery Story because it happened at Kohl's department store.

The woman in front of me in the check out line held a fistful of pretty panties like a bouquet of colorful flowers. The checker, a bubbly girl in her early twenties, exclaimed over their dainty frilly-ness and chattered about how much she enjoyed pretty underthings as well.

The woman agreed, but said these were for her daughter at college. "I like to send her little things to let her know I miss her and I'm thinking about her."

Busy with the scanner, the checker's laugh sounded a little artificial. "I'd be happy to know my mother even remembers she has a daughter."

The woman was taken aback. "Well, that happens, I guess..."

"Yeah, some people just shouldn't be mothers. Hey, maybe you could adopt me!"

The checker laughed. The woman laughed. Standing next in line with my purchases, I laughed. But I'm not sure any of us thought it was funny.